Please Don't Feed The Trolls
Years ago, when I first joined Facebook and Twitter, I saw a lot of online trolling—especially from people I actually knew in real life. At the time, I assumed they would eventually mature and grow out of that behavior. Fast forward several years later, those trolls haven’t matured; they’ve actually grown into grotesque giants. Instead of baiting people about insignificant things, they’ve moved onto politics, misogyny, and sharing their racist thoughts. Everyone knows them. I say “them” because they seem to share similar characteristics. You know–the ones who seemed angry back in high school, were always causing trouble, and probably never left the town they grew up in. Sound familiar?
Today’s political climate seems to have amplified these trolls. It’s as if a certain leader is their daddy and makes sure they’re well fed each day. Well fed on a diet of conspiracies, lies, racism and bigotry, and fake news. Who’s to blame though? Is it their leader, and should we be drawing comparisons to Jim Jones, who prayed on weak-minded individuals, too? Or, should we be blaming the trolls when it comes to political trolling, because they should know better and are responsible for their own actions? I think the blame goes both ways. It’s as if they’re trying to impress their absentee father figure who is too narcissistic to care about them.
After doing some research on trolling, I discovered in a 2014 study that was published in the psychology journal Personality and Individual Differences “found that the approximately 5% of Internet users who self-identified as trolls scored extremely high in the dark tetrad of personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and, especially, sadism.”
I want to add: the point of this post isn’t to offend or shame anyone for their political beliefs. It’s also not to disregard meaningful dialogue between people who have opposing views. Having a thoughtful discussion is what we should be doing–not trolling others for fun, boredom, or personal amusement. Free speech is important, but it comes with responsibility: it should be used to exchange ideas, challenge beliefs respectfully, and foster understanding–not to harass or manipulate others online.
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